Mass purge: We retired only 38 senior officers –Army

By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi

Opening up for the first time since the retirement of some of its senior officers last week, the Nigerian Army said only 38 senior officers of various ranks were asked to go.
Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman said in a statement, yesterday, that the Army Council only approved the compulsory retirement of 38 senior officers.
According to Usman, those affected in the compulsory retirement exercise were nine Major Generals, 10 Brigadier Generals, seven Colonels, 11 Lieutenant Colonels and a Major.
He quoted service exigencies in consonance with the Armed Forces Act, 30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, as the basis for their compulsory retirement from service.
Usman also made reference to the outcome of the investigation of the Presidential Panel on Arms Procurement and the Investigative Panel into the activities of the personnel of the army as the basis for the retirement of the officers in an earlier statement on Saturday.
He said the army remains a professional organisation whose personnel must remain apolitical at all time.
“There have been speculations and rumours regarding the number and names of the senior Army officers affected in the recent retirement exercise.
“We wish to state that only 38 senior officers were affected by the retirement exercise.
“For the avoidance of doubt the following is the statistics of the officers retired compulsorily; 9 Major Generals, 10 Brigadier Generals, 7 Colonels, 11 Lieutenant Colonels and a Major.
“We are quite aware that some mischievous elements are trying to whip up sentiments. This is quite unfortunate because all the affected officers were retired based on service exigencies and in line with the Armed Forces Act, CAP A20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004,” Usman said in the statement.